Mobility Must Haves for Softball Players

I’ve been training softball players for a really long time. It’s naïve to say that the game never changes. We know that as the years progress the game gets slightly tweaked here and there. The bats are hotter out of the wrapper, there’s an expert instructor for every possible skill, players are verbaling before they even graduate from junior high school. What an interesting sport this is.

Yet throughout this evolution there’s one thing I see moving at such a snails pace, it’s incredible; the lack of mobility work on softball players.

I’ve seen parents and coaches spend hundreds of dollars on a recruiting video, yet they don’t encourage any form of mobility training for their daughters playing.

I don’t have a daughter but if I did, I’d teach her the importance of proper mobility mechanics and its importance to the overall health of her performance. I’ve seen hundreds of players throughout my softball training career that have little to no mobility training available to them. I’ve also seen these same players injured, playing through extreme muscle soreness, muscle fatigue, or some form of consistent breakdown due to a lack of flexibility.

I’ve watched players warm up for games or practices with little to no dynamic stretching, active dynamic work or pre-speed work, yet are expected to perform at extremely high levels of play.

So, if you want to take a different route here’s a little Mobility 101.

Players need and overall mobility program. I design my mobility training in stages

Stage 1- Overall Hip Routine– Players perform my hip routine before we do any type of workout. A players hips are powerful and a necessary link in the performance, speed, movement chain. (if your interested in receiving my Hip Routine, email me at softballstrong13@gmail and like my page-Softball Strong).

Stage 2- Dynamic Stretching– Dynamic Stretching allows the muscle groups to elongate while moving in a manner similar to playing movement. The benefits are so valuable to players, I cant imagine why coaches completely disregard it.

Stage 3- Active Dynamic- Active Dynamic movement takes dynamic stretching a step further by incorporating sprint warm ups with the warm up process.

These mobility drills are so easy to incorporate into a team or individuals warm up and are incredibly important to the overall well being of your players.

Feel free to use this format and contact me with more mobility programming questions. Also check out my training videos at Softball Strong, and on Facebook & IG! 

Till Next Week,

Kris Massaro
Softball Strong
Arm Pro Bands LLC